In most districts, the evaluation of superintendents by the members of the board of education takes place in executive session of the board behind closed doors. Few board members or superintendents question the status quo. Most evaluation forms are merely collections of subjective checklists that catalog approved personality traits, attributes,…

As part of the Transforming Learning Cultures in Further Education (TLC) project, questionnaire data were collected from three consecutive cohorts of students in a wide range of learning sites, initially four in each of four Further Education (FE) colleges in England. This paper focuses on changes in perceived learning environment as mapped by…

University graduate-level programs are striving to address needs for community college leaders. One way they are doing this is by strengthening their graduate programs with relevant community college courses. Increasingly, however, community college presidents are being invited to join universities in professorial roles. These new graduate faculty…

This article examines how Black teachers in overwhelmingly White schools evaluate their work experiences as both numerical and racial minorities. I extend Kanter's (1977) theory of tokenism through a look at how ideology shapes the work experiences and evaluations of racial tokens. Kanter developed a framework that outlined 3 general processes…

Recent studies of the current state of rural education and training (RET) systems in sub-Saharan Africa have assessed their ability to provide for the learning needs essential for more knowledgeable and productive small-scale rural households. These are most necessary if the endemic causes of rural poverty (poor nutrition, lack of sustainable…

This study examines how passage availability and reading comprehension question format (open-ended vs. multiple-choice) influence question answering. In two experiments, college undergraduates read an expository passage and answered open-ended and multiple-choice versions of text-based, local, and global bridging inference questions. Half the…

There has been a disturbing decline in the take-up of physics within second-level education in Ireland since the early nineties. Here, an analysis is presented of the main factors influencing the take-up of physics from the perspective of secondary school teachers. The database underpinning the analysis is based on a comprehensive survey of…

For a long time, there has been a tradition in China of experienced teachers helping beginning teachers. This empirical school study investigates the kinds of support that are provided by eight dyads of mentoring teacher and first-year secondary school teachers in Guangzhou of southern China and the major factors affecting mentoring support. In…

An information literacy (IL) framework has been proposed for Hong Kong students to adapt to the emergence of the knowledge-based society, digital culture and globalisation. The aims of the study reported herein were to validate the proposed IL model and collect the views of practitioners and representative stakeholders on the possibility of its…

In recent years, the Standards for Qualified Teacher Status in England have placed new emphasis on student-teachers' ability to become integrated into the "corporate life of the school" and to work with other professionals. Little research, however, has been carried out into how student-teachers perceive the social processes and…

Long-term influences of educational development initiatives for novice faculty members are seldom studied in a systematic way. In this exploratory study the long-term individual and institutional impact of a novice faculty training programme at the University of Antwerp (Belgium) was evaluated, using a written survey with open questions. The…

This paper reports on research aimed at investigating the ways in which teachers in Portugal and in England are experiencing recent changes in the policy environment which have affected their sense of professionalism and their professional identity. Data were collected through questionnaires and focus group interviews. Findings suggest the…

In this study, the societal economic consequences of autistic spectrum disorder were investigated using a sample of parents of children identified with the disorder and living in a Swedish municipality. Cost information was collected using a postal questionnaire that was developed through experiences gained from an earlier study. Using…

This study investigated the effects of two levels of spatial ability--high spatial, low spatial--and two different presentation platforms--virtual reality, computer monitor--on performance of a pictured rotation task over two consecutive trials. Performance was measured by response time and accuracy. The 24 male and 8 female subjects (college…

A broad range of literature on staff development, an important component of intensive English programs (IEPs) is reviewed, and an interactive staff development model is proposed. The model calls for three layers of staff as defined in TESOL's Statement of Core Standards--Administrative, Instructional, and Support--that may mutually enhance one…